Method and system of using artifacts to identify elements of a component business model

ABSTRACT

A method and system are described for using business artifacts to identify elements of a component business model. Artifacts operated upon by the business are first identified, and then used to analyze the business into business operations. This is done by identifying every business activity that acts on an artifact, creating directed graphs for the business activities, and decomposing the directed graphs into sub-graphs, each sub-graph representing a business operation and being annotated by a verb expression, the annotated sub-graph representing a business service. The business services are then clustered into non-overlapping components, using common affinities reflected in the verb expressions, and organized by partitioning into internal and external operations, exposing a business service for each external operation. The components are then clustered into non-overlapping business competencies, and arranged by accountability level.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/328,919, filed Jan. 10, 2006, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,574,379,and which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to component based businessmodels and, more particularly, to techniques for using businessartifacts to discover and refine elements of a component business model.

2. Background Description

Various role players within the enterprise need to understand how thebusiness performs its operations and activities in order to effectivelymanage the business and to enable business transformation. Businesselements that comprise a component business model are often difficult toidentify, analyze and specify. This is especially so when creating acomponent business model without the use of any established templates orguides. Even where there are generalized industry templates, businesselements that are extracted and reused from these templates need to becustomized to the needs of an individual business enterprise.

What is needed is an improved methodology for identifying elements of acomponent business model.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An aspect of the invention is a method for identifying elements of acomponent business model, comprising identifying artifacts operated onby a business, using the artifacts to analyze the business into businessservices, clustering the business services into non-overlappingcomponents and clustering the components into non-overlappingcompetencies. In another aspect of the invention, using the artifacts toanalyze the business further comprises, for each identified artifact,identifying every business activity that acts on the artifact during alifecycle of the artifact, creating a directed graph for the identifiedbusiness activities, decomposing the directed graph into sub graphs,each sub graph representing a sequence of activities at a level ofgranularity suitable for the business, and annotating each sub graphwith a verb expression, each sub graph representing a business operationand each annotated sub graph representing a business service.

In a further aspect of the invention, clustering into components furthercomprises clustering the business services into components and, for eachsaid component cluster, organizing the business services into setsconsolidating duplicate functions and partitioning the business servicesexternal to the component from the business services internal to thecomponent, each external business service being exposed by thecomponent. Another aspect of the invention further comprises arrangingeach component in each competency by accountability level within acomponent business model map. Yet another aspect of the inventionfurther comprises rationalizing the components and competencies toinsure that each established service exposed by a component is called byanother component with no orphans. In a further aspect, where acomponent business model of the business already exists, the inventionfurther comprises determining whether any business operation createdfrom analysis using an artifact is new to the existing componentbusiness model and, for any business operation determined to be new andalso determined to be an external operation in a component, establishinga business service exposed by the component.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be betterunderstood from the following detailed description of a preferredembodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a metamodel of a component business model (CBM).

FIG. 1A shows a simple example of an artifact flowing through severalbusiness tasks.

FIG. 2 is a high level flow chart showing operation of the method of theinvention.

FIG. 3A is a schematic diagram showing an example of initiallyidentified business artifacts.

FIG. 3B is a schematic diagram showing a collection of businessactivities identified for a selected business artifact.

FIG. 3C is a directed graph showing a lifecycle of the businessactivities identified in FIG. 3B.

FIG. 3D is a schematic diagram showing additional business artifactsidentified as associated with business activities identified in FIG. 3B.

FIG. 3E is a directed graph modified to separate business operations atcleave points.

FIG. 3F is a directed graph as in FIG. 3E further modified to define abusiness service for each business operation.

FIG. 3G is a schematic diagram showing an example of business servicessharing mutual affinities being clustered into business areas.

FIG. 4A is a schematic diagram showing an example of formation ofbusiness components from the business services in one of the businessareas identified in FIG. 3G.

FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram showing the business componentsidentified in FIG. 4A allocated to business competencies and operationallevels on a component map.

FIG. 5A is a schematic diagram showing a high level view of how theinvention uses artifacts to specify CBM elements.

FIG. 5B is a more detailed schematic diagram of a software tool shown inFIG. 5A for using artifacts to identify CBM elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the present invention to enable astandardized method and system for identifying elements in a componentbusiness model for representing a business enterprise. By elements wemean business components, business operations, business activities,business services and business competencies that comprise a componentbusiness model.

Another object of the invention is to provide various role playerswithin the enterprise, including executive management, businessoperation teams, business analysts, IT architects, and program/projectmanagers better ways of identifying, analyzing and specifying variouselements that comprise a component business model.

A further object of the invention is to enable business transformation.

The invention uses the Component Business Model (CBM) described inrelated patent application Ser. No. 11/176,371 for “SYSTEM AND METHODFOR ALIGNMENT OF AN ENTERPRISE TO A COMPONENT BUSINESS MODEL” (hereaftertermed “the above referenced foundation patent application”). CBMprovides a logical and comprehensive view of the enterprise, in termsthat cut across commercial enterprises in general and industries inparticular. The component business model as described in the abovereferenced foundation patent application is based upon a logicalpartitioning of business activities into non-overlapping managingconcepts, each managing concept being active at the three levels ofmanagement accountability: providing direction to the business,controlling how the business operates, and executing the operations ofthe business. The term “managing concept” is specially defined asdescribed in the above referenced foundation patent application, and isnot literally a “managing concept” as that phrase would be understood inthe art. For the purpose of the present invention, as for the relatedinvention, “managing concept” is the term associated with the followingaspects of the partitioning methodology. First, the methodology is apartitioning methodology. The idea is to begin with a whole andpartition the whole into necessarily non-overlapping parts. Second,experience has shown that the partitioning process works best whenaddressed to an asset of the business. The asset can be furtherdescribed by attributes. Third, the managing concept must includemechanisms for doing something commercially useful with the asset. For asensibly defined managing concept these mechanisms must cover the fullrange of management accountability levels (i.e. direct, control andexecute). Managing concepts are further partitioned into components,which are cohesive groups of activities. The boundaries of a componentusually fall within a single management accountability level. It isimportant to emphasize that the boundaries between managing concepts(and between components within managing concepts) are logical ratherthan physical.

The method of the invention begins with an initial identification ofbusiness artifacts, items which are operated upon (e.g. by adding ormodifying information content identified with the item). For eachartifact, the business activities that act on the artifact areidentified and a directed graph representing the life cycle of theartifact is constructed from these identified business activities. If abusiness activity creates or receives new artifacts not previouslyknown, these are added to those initially identified.

Each directed graph is decomposed into sub-graphs that perform sequencesof activities, each sequence being a business operation. The level ofgranularity of distinct business operations is chosen to be suitable forthe particular business being analyzed. Each business operation is givena verb expression reflecting a business service performed by thebusiness operation.

When all the artifacts have been processed in this fashion, the businessservices are clustered into ‘bags’ reflecting mutual affinities. Theseclusters are business components. The business services within a bag arethen organized into sets, consolidating duplicate functions. Theservices within a bag are then partitioned to identify those which areinternal to the business component and those which are external, i.e.those that provide services to other components or receive services fromother components.

Finally, the business components are clustered into sets that containmutual affinities. These clustered sets define business competencies.Within a competency, the business components are arranged intoaccountability levels within a CBM map of the business.

Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIG. 1, there isshown a metamodel of a component business model (CBM). Businesscomponent 110 is a well-bounded piece of the enterprise that can be abusiness in its own right. It includes the resources, people, technologyand know-how necessary to deliver the value the business strives toprovide. The business component 110 requires business service 115 andprovides business service 120. A business service is some well-definedfunction that a business component offers to other business componentsand/or to external parties. The business component 110 works on businessartifact 125. A business artifact is a concrete identifiable chunk ofbusiness information such as forms, documents and messages.

The business service 120 provided by business component 110 is enabledby business operation 130, which describes what the business actuallydoes. The business operation 130 consists of business artifacts,business activities that work on artifacts, topology of connectionsbetween the business activities, and resources, people and technologythat support the activities. Business activity 135 is something thebusiness does at a level of granularity that is chosen by the business.It is connected in two directions to link 140, which is driven bybusiness operation 130. Business activity 135 is expressed in a serviceinvocation activity 145, which is a business activity that requires thata business service be invoked. Business activities may: (1) link toother business activities; (2) invoke other business operations thatreside internal to the component; or (3) invoke business services thatare exposed by business components. Business activity 135 is an exampleof the latter.

The method of the invention provides a more precise means, involvingless subjectivity, for identifying CBM elements and how the businessoperates. Business artifacts describe, in information terms and at abusiness level, what the business produces or processes (e.g. ahealthcare insurance enterprise might be in the business of processingwritten requests prepared by claimants, called “Claims”). By usingbusiness artifacts, business activities 135 can be elicited by askingthe questions—“How do you recognize an artifact that you can work on?”and “What information do you add to this artifact as part of yourprocessing?” Business activities 125 which process artifacts, and theconnection topology between them, characterize business operation 130.

The method of using business artifacts to identify CBM elements resultsin a new, unique and innovative process to discover new CBM elements orvalidate and improve the definition of existing CBM elements, includingbusiness components, business operations, business activities, businessservices and business competencies that comprise a Component BusinessModel. Both business competencies and business components rely onoperations that process artifacts—thus artifacts provide an effectivemechanism for insights into business components and businesscompetencies. For example, business services provided by a businesscomponent can be identified and/or rationalized in terms of theartifacts that the business component processes and maintains. Abusiness service is in one of three categories. It may provideinformation that is available from artifacts in the component. It mayupdate the information content of artifacts in the component. Finally,it may transfer the actual artifact to the requester.

The artifact method of identifying CBM elements describes two conditionswhere CBM elements can be identified: first, it may be used where theCBM map or CBM elements have not previously been identified; second, itmay be used where the structure of the CBM and the CBM elements has beenspecified but requires validation and modification.

The method presented describes various steps in the technique toidentify new or validate existing CBM elements. First, it establishesthe lifecycle of an artifact and creates a directed graph of all thebusiness activities that act on it. Second, it applies a technique of“cleave points” resulting in an improved way of decomposing an entireenterprise within the Component Business Model structure. The analysisof cleave points is enabled by a decomposition of directed graphs ofbusiness activities which apply to the lifecycle of the businessartifact. Cleave points are a sensible decomposition or breaking up of alarge directed graph into smaller business processes that are suitablein size for the business and results in the identification of businessoperations and business services. Finally, it applies clusteringtechniques to business services to discern and identify businesscomponents, and then clusters business components to identify businesscompetencies.

A discussion on the nature of a business artifact, its lifecycle and thetasks that act on it is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,662,355 to Caswellet al. By following the artifact lifecycle we identify all the businessactivities that act on the artifact and construct a picture of the lifeof the artifact from cradle to grave. This is represented in thedirected graph of business activities. This graph may be overwhelminglycomplex and additional analysis is required to decompose the lifecycle,at appropriate cleave points, into an assemblage of chunks suitable insize for the business.

A standard for identifying a cleave point is one that locates the cleavepoint at a place that minimizes the transfer of data and messagesbetween business processes, while maximizing the locality of informationwithin the business process. Analysis of these business processesthrough aggregation and their subsequent re-composition is a leadingindicator for business component identification and validation.

The method of using business artifacts to identify CBM elements alsoinvolves a process of clustering basic pieces of function into morecomplex aggregations, (e.g. a business operation is an aggregation ofmultiple business activities.) To accomplish this grouping a concept of“mutual affinities” is applied. By mutual affinities we mean theidentification of related function, data and behavior between two ormore common elements. Clustering can be accomplished through any one ofseveral known and recognized approaches, including conceptual clustering(two or more elements belong to the same cluster if the cluster isdefined by a concept common to the elements) distance-based clustering(the similarity criterion between two or more elements if they are“close” according to a metric based on the shared affinity betweenthem), or semantic analysis of element names and their descriptions.

The behavior of the CBM Artifact Method (for example, the granularity ofCBM elements) can be controlled through the specification of preferredranges for criteria analysis. An example of this is the specification ofan ideal number of components, competencies, or services that comprise agiven CBM. The central notion of using business artifacts is that ‘whatthe business actually does’ can be described using artifacts. Thesedescriptions are more easily understood by business people, especiallythose with operational responsibility, and also have enough informationto facilitate the building of automation systems to support thebusiness.

A business artifact is a concrete and identifiable container of businessinformation, a container that makes sense to a business person.Artifacts are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,662,355 to Caswell et al.,and their use is extended as described in the present invention todiscover elements of component business models. Examples of an artifactare an order, a customer record, or a guest check in a restaurant. ‘Whata business actually does’ can be described as a network of businesstasks through which an artifact flows. A simple example of an orderartifact flowing through three business tasks is shown in FIG. 1A. Thefirst task is to create the order 160. The created order then movesalong an edge 165 to the next task, which is to validate the order 170.The validated order then moves along an edge 175 to the next task, whichis to place the order 180. The artifact approach factorizes the businessinformation into three essential ingredients—artifacts (which containinformation), business activities (which implement function), and flow(i.e. edges which define the movement of artifacts from one task toanother).

A business activity is idle until an artifact arrives. The activity addsto the artifact the information that it has been trained to add andpasses it on. Each business activity has enough knowledge to recognizean artifact and to process it in accordance with the requirements of thebusiness.

Turning now to FIG. 2, there is shown a high level flow chart of themethod of the invention. The method begins with an initialidentification of business artifacts 210. These identified artifactsprovide the initial collection of artifacts to be analyzed 215. FIG. 3Ashows an example of such a collection of artifacts 305 as anunassociated unordered group of objects in “bag” 300, including apurchase order artifact 310. Analysis begins by selecting one of thecollected artifacts, for example, purchase order artifact 310 shown inFIG. 3A.

Then the selected artifact is used to identify the various businessactivities that act on the artifact and order them into a directed graphrepresenting the life cycle of the artifact 225. This part of theanalysis may be understood with reference to FIGS. 3B and 3C. As shownin FIG. 3B, purchase order artifact 310 (selected for analysis as shownin FIG. 3A) is used to collect a bag 312 of those business activities315 that act on the purchase order artifact 310. Then these businessactivities are ordered into a directed graph as shown in FIG. 3C. Forexample, the purchase order artifact is used for searching a catalog315A, finding a price 315B, checking inventory 315C, adding an item tothe purchase order 315D, etc. Note that copying technology, coupled withcontrolling indicators on the artifact to later combine the copies, suchas those which support data caching and data coherence, enable thedirected graph for an artifact to be more complex than a linear sequenceof business activities each acting in turn upon the artifact. An exampleof a more complex life cycle for an artifact is shown by the “fork” orbranching pattern in FIG. 3C after the order submission activity 315H.One copy of the purchase order artifact 310 follows branch 318 to asequence of business activities beginning with charge credit card 315Jand continuing to finance audit 315M. Another copy of the purchase orderartifact 310 follows branch 317 to a sequence of business activitiesbeginning with submit to warehouse 315N and continuing to archive order315U. In addition to forks, other business process composition patternsincluding sequence, decision, joins and synchronization are supported.It is noted that these business composition patterns may also suggestpotential “cleave points”. It should also be noted that copies andcontrolling indicators for complex directed graphs may be implementedusing computerized representations of the artifacts.

In the course of constructing a directed graph describing the life cycleof the artifact, additional artifacts may be identified, as showngenerically by item 230 in FIG. 2 and by example in FIG. 3D. It shouldbe noted that business activities, which provide the basic units ofbusiness function, may create or receive additional business artifactsin the course of performing their functions. The purchase order artifact310 is used to search catalog 315A, then find price 315B, checkinventory 315C, add the ordered item to the purchase order 315D,calculate the tax 315E, calculate shipping charges 315F, etc. In orderto search catalog 315A, a catalog request artifact 320 is created and aresponsive catalog record 321 is also created. When using the purchaseorder artifact 310 to find price 315B, a price record artifact 322 isconsulted. Similarly, when checking inventory 315C, an inventory requestartifact 323 is generated, and an inventory record artifact 324 isreturned in response. In order to calculate tax 315E a tax recordartifact 325 is consulted. Similarly, to calculate shipping charges 315Fa shipping record artifact 326 is consulted.

At this point in the analysis the identified artifacts (e.g. catalogrequest 320 through shipping record 326) are evaluated to determinewhether any new artifacts have been identified 235, and if so the newartifacts are added 240 to the collection of artifacts to be analyzed215, as shown by the dotted line in FIG. 2. Proceeding in an exhaustiveand detailed manner, the business activities that the business performswill be identified. It is asserted, by not proven in this patent, thatthis process results in the complete coverage and identification of allbusiness activities within the enterprise. A corollary to thisassertion, also not proven in this patent, is that all work performed bythe business is represented or attributable to the business artifacts itproduces.

Continuing with FIG. 2, the next step in the method is to decompose thedirected graph into sub-graphs representing a sequence of businessactivities at a level of granularity suitable for the business 245. Anexample is shown in FIG. 3E, where the directed graph constructed forthe business activities 315 acting on purchase order artifact 310 isdecomposed into four business operations (310, 331, 332 and 333), whichare identified by appropriate verb expressions as business servicescreate order 340 (corresponding to business operation 330), accountorder 341 (corresponding to business operation 331), fulfill order 342(corresponding to business operation 332), and archive order 343(corresponding to business operation 333), as shown in FIG. 3F.

The foregoing steps (items 220 through 245 in FIG. 2) are repeated 250until all artifacts have been analyzed. We are now at the point in themethod in which business components and business competencies can beidentified. Through the process of clustering business services based onmutual affinities, we establish focal points of related business servicewithin the enterprise. These “service centers” present naturalboundaries among chunks of the business and forms discrete parts withspecialist capabilities which when aggregated together covers the entireenterprise. As noted in foundation patent application, these discrete,non-overlapping parts are called business components. The artifactmethod presents a technique to identify business components through thedecomposition of the artifact lifecycle into business services, and thesubsequent aggregation of services into business components. Likewise,the artifact method describes a technique to identify “managementconcepts”, also cited in the foundation patent, through the process ofclustering business components into business competencies.

The business services that have been identified are grouped into bagsthat reflect mutual affinities 255. It may be that many businessservices may have been identified which may make clustering directlyinto business components difficult. To ameliorate this problem anintermediate clustering is proposed which is illustrated in FIG. 3G.This intermediate clustering is based on the concept of “majorcategories” (discussed in the foundation patent application) that aredesigned to cover all types of business activity in all industries.These major categories represent broad generic functions that businessespossess, and include: business assets, business development,constituents, finance, distribution, sales & services, production, andproduction management.

An example of intermediate clustering based on major categories is shownin FIG. 3G, which shows a sales and service bag 350, a finance bag 360,a distribution bag 370 and a business assets bag 380. It will be notedthat each of the business services identified in FIG. 3F have beengrouped with related business services in FIG. 3G, which also containsadditional services discovered from an analysis of other artifacts. Thecreate order 340 business service has been grouped with create salespolicies 351, modify order 352, get order status 353, update orderstatus 354, track customer satisfaction 355, create customer account356, and cancel order 357. This grouping reflects the “sales andservice” 350 affinity common to these business services.

Similarly, the account order 341 business service has been grouped withcalculate tax 361, issue report 362 and international pricing 363 underthe common affinity “finance” 360. Fulfill order 342 business servicehas been grouped with shipping report 371, inventory report 372 andorder tracking 373 under the common affinity “distribution” 370. Andarchive order 343 business service has been grouped with orderassessment 381 and business planning 382 under the common affinity“business assets” 380.

The clusters of business services having mutual affinities are thenascent foundations for business components. These bags of businessservices are further refined using clustering to more narrow andspecialized mutual affinity criteria that generate business componentssuitable in size and character to the nature of the business. Theserefined mutual affinity clusters reflect a partitioning that meets thedefinition of a “business component” described in the above referencedfoundation patent application. That is, each refined affinity clusterreflects a business component that enables a center of related businessservices activities, which are non-overlapping. The business serviceswithin a cluster are organized into cohesive groups of activities, whichare the business components of the CBM model. For each component, thebusiness services are organized to consolidate duplicate functions andeliminate overextensions. An example of organizing business services ofan affinity cluster into components is shown in FIG. 4A. A businesscomponent sales order 410 includes the business services of create order340, modify order 352, and cancel order 357. Similarly, a businesscomponent customer service 420 includes the business services of getorder status 353 and update order status 354. The remaining threebusiness services create sales policies 351, create customer account 356and track customer satisfaction 355 are included in business componentsales planning 430, customer accounts 440 and Customer RelationshipManagement (CRM) tracking 450, respectively. It should be noted thatthese components may already have been established in a CBM map, inwhich case the identified business services are used to verify or add tothe existing model, and in any event components may include otherservices besides those identified by the artifact methodology of thepresent invention.

Returning to FIG. 2, in order to complete either creation of a CBM modelor updating of an existing CBM model, the business competencies need tobe identified. This is done by clustering the business components thusfar identified by the artifact methodology into “affinity clusters”using affinity criteria that reveal managing concepts, and then placingthem into a suitable accountability level. These mutual affinityclusters reflect a partitioning that meets the definition of “businesscompetency” described in the above referenced foundation patentapplication. That is, each affinity cluster reflects a managing concept(or a combination of managing concepts) of related business activitiesand the clusters are non-overlapping.

As shown in FIG. 4B, the sales planning component 430 is in the direct481 accountability level, the CRM tracking component 450 is in thecontrol 482 accountability level, and the remaining components are inthe execute 483 accountability level. Note that FIG. 4B shows thebusiness components clustered under intermediate “major category” called“sales and service” have now been assigned to more refined businesscompetencies called “selling” 471 and “servicing” 472. (Note that inthis example the names of the business competencies are coincident withthe name of the major category.) The sales planning component 430 andthe sales orders component 410 are organized under selling 471, whilethe CRC tracking 450, customer service 420 and customer accounts 440components are organized under servicing 472. Depending upon theparticular business involved, size and other factors, separatecompetencies may be appropriate for selling 471 and servicing 472, or itmay be more appropriate to merge the selling 471 and servicing 472managing concepts into a “sales and service” competency 473.

The main elements of the preferred embodiment of the invention may besummarized with reference to FIG. 5A. Business artifacts 520 comprisethe set of the identifiable chunks of business information that must beidentified, and which then serve as the inputs for a CBM artifact methodtool 550 implementing the invention. As described in the CBM artifactmethod tool 550, business artifacts 520 provide the starting place foridentifying all CBM business elements 530. The other inputs to the tool550 are the CBM metamodel 510, which specifies all CBM elements andtheir relationship to one another, and, optionally, an existing CBM map540 (or a CBM template that needs to be customized for a given business,where there is no existing CBM map for the business). Should neither aCBM template or existing CBM map 540 be available, the tool will use theartifact analysis to identify and create CBM elements for the business.

The tool 550 for realizing the artifact method can support aninteractive user interface or an automated program that follows the CBMartifact method described above to produce a new or modified componentbusiness model for the business. The output 530 of the tool 550 is avalid and verified specification of the component business model for abusiness, including all CBM elements. The output 530 may represent areport, a file of structured information or a presentation on an enduser interface.

FIG. 5B provides a more detailed view of software tool 550. Applicationlogic program 555 interacts with artifact rules and policies 555 anduses a local database 551 for storage. Information in CBM repository560, enterprise architecture application 570 and business standardsapplication 580 are provided to application program logic 553 throughapplication adaptors 552. Application program logic 553 is accessed andcontrolled by users 590 through a user interface controller 554.

While the invention has been described in terms of a single preferredembodiment, those skilled in the art will recognize that the inventioncan be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of theappended claims.

1. A method for identifying elements of a component business model,comprising: identifying the business artifacts operated on by abusiness, wherein a business artifact is a concrete identifiable chunkof business information comprising forms, documents and/or messages, andis a concrete and identifiable container of business information whereinthe container makes sense to a businessperson; using the businessartifacts from the identifying step, processing the business intobusiness services, wherein a business service is represented by anannotated sub-graph, annotated with a verb expression, and is somewell-defined function that a business component offers to other businesscomponents and/or to external parties; clustering the business servicesinto asset based non-overlapping components; clustering the componentsinto non-overlapping competencies, wherein using the business artifactsto analyze the business further comprises, for each identified businessartifact: identifying every business activity that acts on the businessartifact during a lifecycle of the business artifact; creating adirected graph for the identified business activities; identifying oneor more cleave points for decomposing the directed graph into subgraphs, each sub graph representing a sequence of activities at a levelof granularity suitable for the business, each said cleave point beinglocated at a place that minimizes transfer of data and messages betweenbusiness processes while maximizing the locality of information withinthe business process; decomposing the directed graph into sub-graphs ateach of said one or more cleave points; annotating each sub graph with averb expression, each sub graph representing a business operation andeach annotated sub graph representing a business service; and whereinthe above-recited method steps are performed by a computer.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein clustering into components further comprises:clustering said business services into components; for each saidcomponent cluster, organizing the business services into setsconsolidating duplicate functions and partitioning the business servicesexternal to the component from the business services internal to thecomponent, each external business service being exposed by thecomponent.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: rationalizingthe components and competencies to insure that each established serviceexposed by a component is called by another component with no orphans.4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: arranging each componentin each said competency by accountability level within a componentbusiness model map.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:rationalizing the components and competencies with respect to processesof the business, to insure that all the processes of the business arecovered by the components and competencies.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein a component business model of the business already exists,further comprising determining whether any business operation createdfrom analysis using an artifact is new to the existing componentbusiness model, and for any business operation determined to be new andalso determined to be an external operation in a 6 componentestablishing a business service exposed by the component.
 7. The methodof claim 1, wherein the business 2 services comprise one or moreselected from the group consisting of: a business service that providesinformation that is available from business artifacts in the component;a business service that updates information content of artifacts in thecomponent; and a business service that transfers the business 6 artifactto a requester.
 8. Implementing a service for identifying elements of acomponent business model, comprising the method of: identifying businessartifacts operated on by a business, wherein a business artifact is aconcrete identifiable chunk of business information comprising forms,documents and/or messages; using the business artifacts from theidentifying step, processing the business into business services,wherein a business service is represented by an annotated sub-graph,annotated with a verb expression, and is some well-defined function thata business component offers to other business components and/or toexternal parties; clustering the business services into asset basednon-overlapping components; and clustering the components intonon-overlapping competencies, wherein using the business artifacts toanalyze the business further comprises, for each identified businessartifact: identifying every business activity that acts on the businessartifact during a lifecycle of the business artifact; creating adirected graph for the identified business activities; identifying oneor more cleave points for decomposing the directed graph into subgraphs, each sub graph representing a sequence of activities at a levelof granularity suitable for the business, each said cleave point beinglocated at a place that minimizes transfer of data and messages betweenbusiness processes while maximizing the locality of information withinthe business process; decomposing the directed graph into sub-graphs ateach of said one or more cleave points; annotating each sub graph with averb expression, each sub graph representing a business operation andeach annotated sub graph representing a business service; and whereinthe above recited method steps are performed by a computer.
 9. A methodimplementing a service as in claim 8 wherein clustering into componentsfurther comprises: clustering said business services into components;for each said component cluster, organizing the business services intosets consolidating duplicate functions and partitioning the businessservices external to the component from the business services internalto the component, each external business service being exposed by thecomponent.
 10. A method implementing a service as in claim 9, furthercomprising: rationalizing the components and competencies to insure thateach established service exposed by a component is called by anothercomponent with no orphans.
 11. A method implementing a service as inclaim 8, further comprising: arranging each component in each saidcompetency by accountability level within a component business modelmap.
 12. A method implementing a service as in claim 8, furthercomprising: rationalizing the components and competencies with respectto processes of the business, to insure that all the processes of thebusiness are covered by the components and competencies.
 13. A methodimplementing a service as in claim 8, wherein a component business modelof the business already exists, further comprising determining whetherany business operation created from analysis using an artifact is new tothe existing component business model, and for any business operationdetermined to be new and also determined to be an external operation ina component establishing a business service exposed by the component.14. A computer implemented system for identifying elements of acomponent business model, comprising a processor and a memory whereinthe memory coupled to the processor stores a plurality of program codeswhich when executed by the processor executes the following steps: firstcomputer code identifying business artifacts operated on by a business,wherein a business artifact is a concrete identifiable chunk of businessinformation comprising forms, documents and/or messages, and is aconcrete and identifiable container of business information wherein thecontainer makes sense to a businessperson; second computer code usingthe business artifacts that have been identified to analyze the businessinto business services, wherein a business service is represented by anannotated sub-graph, annotated with a verb expression, and is somewell-defined function that a business component offers to other businesscomponents and/or to external parties; third computer code clusteringthe business services into asset based non-overlapping components; andfourth computer code clustering the components into non-overlappingcompetencies wherein the second computer code using the businessartifacts to analyze the business further comprises for each identifiedbusiness artifact: fifth computer code identifying every businessactivity that acts on the business artifact during a lifecycle of thebusiness artifact; sixth computer code creating a directed graph for theidentified business activities; seventh computer code identifying one ormore cleave points for decomposing the directed graph into sub graphs,each sub graph representing a sequence of activities at a level ofgranularity suitable for the business, each said cleave point beinglocated at a place that minimizes transfer of data and messages betweenbusiness processes while maximizing the locality of information withinthe business process; tenth computer code decomposing the directed graphinto sub-graphs at each of said one or more cleave points; eighthcomputer code annotating each sub graph with a verb expression, each subgraph representing a business operation and each annotated sub graphrepresenting a business service.
 15. The computer implemented system ofclaim 14 wherein the third computer code for clustering into componentsfurther comprises: ninth computer code for clustering said businessservices into components; for each said component cluster, tenthcomputer code for organizing the business services into setsconsolidating duplicate functions and eleventh computer code forpartitioning the business services external to the component from thebusiness services internal to the component, each external businessservice being exposed by the component.